If I say something to my neighbours about dripping overflow?

[ILikeItWhatIsIt]

This seems like such a first world problem but it's annoying me!

My back garden looks onto the side of one of my neighbours houses. They've got a sort of lean to garden shed type thing attached onto the side of their house. The wooden kind with a felt roof. My problem is their overflow. It drips constantly, sometimes quite agressively, and could be described as running at some points. I'm pretty sure it's the overflow for their loft water tank, given where it's positioned on their house.

During the summer, I like to have my coffee in the garden first thing and the drip was starting to feel like chinese water torture. Instead of peaceful silence or birds chirping, all I could hear was that dripping hitting the roof of their shed. Obviously, it's not such an issue now since we're coming into A/W, but would I be unreasonable if I asked them to get it fixed? Or just to point it out? I've considered putting a note through the door along the lines of 'you might not be aware, but...', or should I just knock the door? I don't know them so don't know what they're like.

YABU - just put up and shut up
YANBU - yes, say something

I can't believe you're dithering! Just go and tell them they have a problem - you're not sure if they're aware.
It could cause problems if it continues so they may be grateful for the heads up.
My elderly next door but one neighbour had a similar problem that I noticed when in my garden. She was very grateful for me telling her and got it sorted as soon as she could.

Why would you NOT say anything?!

Hello. I think your overflow is leaking, I saw water coming out the back. There you go..

I’ve in fact been on the other side of a very similar scenario - in a previous house I had a guttering that could only be seen from my neighbour’s garden, and by the time she came round to tell me it was pouring water onto her patio and keeping her awake every time it rained, it had been going on for months. I couldn’t believe she hadn’t said anything previously, felt really embarrassed, got it fixed immediately, and certainly wasn’t cross that she let me know.

It may well cause them damp problems that are expensive to rectify if left so I'd definitely give them the heads up - for their own sakes as much as yours!

Much better to go round and talk to them. A note comes across as very passive aggressive. If they're reasonable people they should be grateful to you for drawing it to their attention.

Don't take a complaining or confrontational attitude though - just explain that you're concerned about the constantly dripping pipe.

I think I've just overthought the situation. Thinking well how could they not know? They must be able to hear it when their bedroom window is open. What if I tell them about it and they say they already know and aren't going to get it fixed. Then I'll need to tell them it bothers me, then that might end up in a fall out...blah blah. Told you I overthought it lol

Just speak to them, they may even have hearing problems, how would you know?

How do you cope at work or in other situations OP?

All you need to do is flag up to them that there is a problem on their house they need to fix. Whenever I've had things flagged up to me, it's always simply been that we hadn't yet noticed, and we've fixed it as soon as practicable.

I had this - mine was an easy fix. It was an old immersion system and something just needed repositioning in the small tank.

I’d bring it to their attention as surely this continuous drip would lead to higher water bill? Make out like you are doing them a favour

Even if you're sure they must know, the least confrontational initial approach is to assume they don't know and approach the conversation as you doing them a favour by letting them know, on the assumption they haven't noticed. e.g., "You might not have noticed as it's down the side of your house, but when I was in the garden I spotted there was water coming from an overflow pipe. You might need to check you don't have a leak somewhere." Maybe throw in some normal neighbourly chat (moaning about bin collections is popular around here), so it doesn't seem like something you've been obsessing about.

Now, if they don't do anything about it for a few weeks, your next approach would need to bring up the fact that it's bothering you. That's a problem for another day though!